ca. 1765

Painting, opaque watercolour on paper, Raja Brijraj Dev receiving a kneeling courtier. He wears a pale yellow turban and jama, and black aigret plume, and sits on a white stool leaning against a white cushion and resting his arms on a white pillow. Before him kneels a courtier in a white jama and banded turban, a sword suspended from his right shoulder. He gazes with folded hands at Brijraj Dev. Behind the latter stands an attendant in long white jama and turban, his hand resting on an upright sword and holding a long, peacock-feather fan above his head. The flat white terrace is demarcated by a horizontal line; the background has two rectangles, the left and larger one pale grey, the right and smaller one dull pink. The picture is attributed to Jammu, firstly on account of its subject, the Jammu heir-apparent, shown in an attitude and pose of royal command, and secondly, distinctiveness of style, its cool pallor, use of sinuous rhythmical outline, starkly geometrical arrangement and details such as the posture of the standing attendant, the long fan, the disposition of cushion and pillow and the red border with black margins (all of which are found in other paintings assigned, for other reasons, to Jammu). The kneeling courtier is likely to be Mian Bhao Singh of Jasrota, heir-apparent of Raja Ratan Dev of Jasrota (1766-ca. 1780). A minor detail confirming his Jasrota connection is the highly distinctive pair of straggling turban ornaments - a form of personal decoration also favoured by his uncle Mian Mukand Dev of Jasrota. Jasrota enjoyed a specially close relationship with Jammu, and this may easily have involved, at times, the deputation of the ruler or his relatives to serve as Jammu ministers. The respectful attitude of the kneeling courtier, vis-a-vis the Jammu heir apparent, is in obvious line with this general practice.